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Wednesday, May 16, 2012

Learn from my mistake. In yesterday's post I commented that I knew the photos were all jacked up and hoped it was a Blogger problem. Well, guess what? It wasn't. I went to my Google+ account last week and looked in my photos file for some reason. Maybe I was bored. Anyway, there were filed there that had my blog name and tons and tons of photos. It seemed ridiculous because there were so many, so I deleted the albums. Big mistake. Big, BIG mistake. Those albums were all the photos on my blog for the past FIVE YEARS and when I deleted the albums I deleted every photo on my blog. Every !@#$ing one of them. There was nothing that said they were linked to my blog and Google cannot recover them. I seriously want to cry. There's no way I can go back and reload the more than 800 photos that were on my main blog and the 100 or so that were on my home school blog. I'm so pissed at Google I'm thinking of moving my blog to another host. This is beyond ridiculous.
If you have albums in Google+ that show you blog photos, do NOT delete them. I'm going to slowly upload the side photos and banner over the next few days and fume the rest of the time. Not cool Google. NOT COOL.

Tuesday, May 15, 2012

I know I haven't been around. Things are still chaotic in our world. I got many, many emails after my last post full of warm thoughts and encouragements. I want to thank each and every one of you. You're all the best.

BTW, something is up with all the photos and banners on my blog. I'm hoping it's a blogger issue and will work itself out. If not...eh, I'll work on it later.

Since it's Tuesday, the best day of the week, I decided to drag myself from the doldrums and post RTT. Plus, 3 weeks in a row of my not doing RTT would kill you guys, right?

*The other day Indy and I were in the car and I had my iPod hooked up. Smells Like Teen Spirit came on and I was thrown back to my wild college days (my parents and my children will never know exactly how wild). I know the lyrics are rather hard to understand but I know them and that's all that matters. Towards the end of the song, the lyrics get especially garbled in the loud music. Apparently Indy couldn't decode it because after Kurt Cobain screams sings "Here we are now, entertain us," Indy piped up "Did he just say 'feed us potatoes?" Apparently I have been slacking in his cultural education.

*Speaking of education, I really, really dislike all the politicians using their college graduation commencement speeches as platforms for election. I don't care who you are or what office you're running for (President, Governor, Congress, etc), that graduation is about the students who have worked hard to earn their degrees and the speech you give should be about their achievements, not you and your political agenda. So knock it the hell off.

*Have you seen the Avengers??? If not, get off the computer, run to the theater and buy yourself a ticket. It is awesome. Jeremy Renner? Yes, please.

*Season Finale's are killing me! What am I supposed to do until September???? Castle ended the other night and the last 3 minutes were so hot I thought my computer might combust. Of course it could be because I kept rewinding it to watch that scene over and over ad nauseum infinitum. Nathan Fillion? Double yes. Captain Tight Pants indeed. If you get that reference, you are awesome.

*I accidentally "spoiled" myself on what happens on How I Met Your Mother today. I should know to stay off the interwebs, damn it. I've been waiting all season to find out who Barney was waiting for at the alter and damn I didn't READ it. D'oh! You can try not to read it, but if the words are there, you just can't stop your brain from taking it in. I'll be watching it to be sure, but it won't be as exciting. Boo.

*Oh, and the season finale of The Big Bang Theory was a major disappointment. Double boo.

*I read somewhere that an apple, and onion and a potato all taste the same if you bite into them with your nose plugged. I wonder if it's true? I'm not brave enough to actually try it though. Any takers? If you do, let me know.

*Astronauts get taller as they go into space. This just furthers my desire to live on the moon. With the lower gravity I will technically weigh less AND I'll be taller. How sweet would that be? I'm not short (5'4"), but I've always longed to be taller. You can lose or gain weight, but short of racking yourself, which I'm pretty sure is not pleasant, there's not much you can do about your height.

*James Bond and Indy had "the talk" today since Indy is getting older and JB will be gone for such a long time. JB was reluctant, but we'd rather him hear it come from us rather than the kids on the playground and since Indy is a boy, JB got to have the talk. I told JB that if we had girls, I'd have to do it, so he had to do it for the boys. We had the book Where Did I Come From? for him to look at. He asked JB some questions and that was that. JB said he tried really hard not to laugh when Indy looked at him, surprised and said "You actually do that? That's disgusting!"

*Smart people can be funny:

All right, I think I'm done. Click the lovely link at the top and join our esteemed hostess and vintner in linking up your own RTT.

Friday, May 4, 2012

Hello, my lovelies. I haven't been eaten by crocodiles or become a zombie who can't figure out how to work a computer, I promise. I haven't blog in a while (I didn't even get to my beloved RTT this week!), because there are a lot of stressful things going on in our lives and I don't know what to say that doesn't make me sound whiny or like I'm asking for pity. I'm not, I just felt like writing today.

We've known for months and months that James Bond will be deploying to the 'Stan. He hasn't deployed in a few years because he was in a non-deploying unit, but the one he recently moved to is. We were fully aware of this, and he says he "needs" to deploy because he won't get promoted unless he does. Sure, I'm all for promotions, but still. I also know that other soldiers need to come home to their families and that someone has to take their place. Still, that doesn't mean I have to like it. We have many friends who are in the 'Stan right now (JAG and T.O.M are 2 of them), and their families are making it, but they don't like it either. I'm pretty sure no one does.

As I said, we've known for a months (about 8) that it was coming and I've cried on and off since. As the departure date looms though, the tears have been more and more frequent, as has the stress. I try to keep it together, but there are days when I just can't. I try not to cry in front of Indy because he's already stressed enough, but it's becoming increasingly difficult. He's a perceptive kid and knows how stressed I am and has seen the red eyes more than once. Sometimes I cry for him. Han Solo will miss seeing James Bond every day, but he's a baby and will be fine (Indy was). It will be very difficult for Indy though. He and JB are quite close and do lots of stuff together, much of which is crazy, non-mom approving stuff, but they have fun. Having his male role model gone for a year will be hard for him. Sure I'm a great mom (I'm not bragging, he tells me all the time!), but I'm not his dad. Being mom and dad is a tough thing to shoulder. When Indy was a baby and a younger child, it was easier to do, but now, not so much.

Honestly, I'm also scared. I've known too many soldiers who've come back in a box and hugged their spouses and wept with them. Of course most soldiers do come home, but there's always the specter hovering every minute of every day. A soldier from Heidelberg (our previous home) was killed the this week leaving behind his wife and 2 small sons. I didn't know them personally, but I have friends who do and am familiar with their names. It's heartbreaking.

The thought of being alone for a year with 2 children is a bit terrifying. I can (and will) of course utilize baby sitters, but really, it will just be me, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week for a year. I know there are single moms who do this every single day, but I'm not single and truthfully, I don't want to do it. I knew when JB joined the army a million years ago, okay just 16 years, but there are days when if feels like a million, that there was always the possibility that wars would come along and he'd be gone, but knowing the possibility and living the reality are two very different things.

Many wives choose to go "home" during deployments, but for me, "home" is wherever we're stationed. I also want the boys to have as much stability as possible. Having JB gone will be difficult enough, but taking them away from their home, familiarity,stuff (believe it or not, this is important) and friends is not something I'm willing to do. Even though they'd have family to be around, it's just not the same. Plus, here we're only a 2 hour time zone change from JB instead of 8, which will make conversations and skype much easier.

Again, I'm not asking for pity, just talking it through. If I'm not around a lot for a while, it's because of everything that's going on. I may blog once a week, or I may feel the need to spout out my issues or just post silly/random things to help me forget the insanity that is our life right now.